Oculus is clamping down on people trying to make a quick buck selling their Rift VR headsets. The catch is that most of these Rifts being sold are still on pre-order, and the actual unit is only beginning to arrive this week. Many fans have been upset by scalpers cutting in line and then selling off their devices before actual fans come close to getting their hands on the device.
There is a ‘no resale’ policy on the Oculus Rift development kits, and these potential sellers are technically breaking the terms of service; allowing the company to legally cancel their pre-order. It doesn’t help that the eBay listing was some US$2,500, which is substantially higher than the US$300 that Oculus has been asking for the VR headset. The listing appears to have been taken down by now, and it shows a positive move by the manufacturer to prevent this sort of profiteering.
Orders for the Oculus Rift Development Kit 2 from China were cancelled in bulk last week on suspicion of scalping activities going on in the country. The blanket ban ended up angering many legitimate customers who took to Reddit to express their disappointment at the move. While Oculus has not resumed shipments to China, it is currently looking into ways to verify the authenticity of customers who really do want a dev kit for themselves.
Profiteering has been a massive issue with limited run online sales, with individuals buying up large numbers of units in order to resell them at a higher margin. At the very least, it is comforting to know that Oculus is aware of the problem and is clamping down on the activity.
[Source: TechCrunch]
